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Perpetual Sleep Training

It never seems to end. It’s like lifelong learning – you just don’t stop. I’m talking about sleep training. For those of you who have your 1st child, don’t ever think that once you sleep train them, that’s it. Unless of course your child happens to be in that 3% of good sleepers who just NEVER gave you grief about sleep.

Ask M or I, ever since Z was born, we have NOT slept in – the latest is 7am. Yeah, and it’s usually ONE of us only. We love our kids to death but sleep has always been a challenge with them. Every other area of development, they are more than perfect. In fact, they are such big foodies and funny and have huge personalities – yes, even Violet, who is just 6 months old.

I have a sick confession to make. Ok, ready? I still keep a sleep log for Z, who will be three in August. Yeah, it’s an obsession. He naps once for about 1-1.5 hrs (when he is sick) and sometimes up to 2 hrs. Every nap and wake-up is different. There is no pattern, except that it is random. So I’m always on my toes when it comes to being ready to get them when they wake up.

This winter, both kids have been sick more than their fair share of times. Perhaps it’s because they are exposed to other kids at the school I take them to. Another huge factor is that Z LOVES to pick his nose, even in front of others – I really think he forgets and just gets carried away. You know that feeling…where you almost have it and you just need a few more tries to get it out. So, V has been sleeping in the carseat at night for about a week now, and Z has been waking up at weird times, sometimes for multiple times at night.

Yeah, about Z…he calls out for M after he is out down and when he wakes up in the middle of the night, or at 4am, and M was going because he felt bad that Z was sick and coughing and did not want him to be worse the next day. Then, the other night, M brought in the “black cushion” so he could sleep on the floor in Z’s room. Well, last night was the last straw for both of us. I went to get V at 1:30am and accidentally lifted her car seat and it made a loud thud on the floor and woke Z up. (Damn, these light sleepers, eh?) So M went to him, not once, but FIVE times. And he even lost his patience and yelled at Z to go to sleep.

Well, today, I talked to Z and explained to him that we will not be going to him at all and that he should just go back to sleep, without the screaming. After M put him down, within 2 min, he was up. And I watched him crawl out of his blanket, sit and move his loveys aside, move his sippy cup from the top right corner to the top left corner. That spot is his “screaming” corner. He has figured that it is the closest to the door and we would be able to hear him the best from there. (Smart bugger!) So he screamed, and after 4 minutes, he gave up and grabbed his loveys and laid down on his tummy to sleep. And that was it.

Sleep training him used to be so hard for me. In fact, I had to leave the house the very first time we did it. He was 19 months then. I think we’ll be doing this with V as well, but sooner.